56 GARDENS OF THE PLAINS AGRA 



less, uninteresting, and quite unlike the Indian 

 gardens of my dreams. With us, fortunately, 

 water was plentiful, so our first idea was to 

 build as large a fountain as might be, and a 

 central tank from which to irrigate the garden. 

 The space was small, but gradually the natural 

 plan unfolded itself, the long flower-bordered 

 walks leading from the central tank ; though I 

 remember how I argued at great length against 

 the mali's (gardener) insistance that the walks 

 should be raised above the garden level, un- 

 consciously clinging, in my own mind, to the 

 opposite English plan of the flat paths with their 

 raised herbaceous borders. The mali won the 

 day, though I was slow, I confess, to see the 

 obvious fact that the walks, in an irrigated 

 garden, must be necessarily raised for the water 

 to pass under them. It was astonishing how 

 quickly and willingly the work was done ; quite 

 large cypress trees were planted, and the whole 

 garden, previously a burnt-up field, soon took 

 shape. When it was planted I was quite unaware 

 of its propitious symbolism, how even the " good " 

 snake was not wanting, a cobra which lived curled 

 up in the roots of the old mango tree at the end of 

 one of the four walks. How horrified I should have 



